


All a Jumble

by fezwearingjellybananas



Series: FlashVibe Week 2018 [6]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-21 17:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fezwearingjellybananas/pseuds/fezwearingjellybananas
Summary: In which Melting Pot accidentally switches everyone's powers, but it might just help





	All a Jumble

**Author's Note:**

> [ FlashVibe Week Day 6](http://flashvibeweek.tumblr.com/post/174064547638/flashvibe-week-2018-monday-august-6-sunday): Reverse Powers AU

“It could be worse,” Caitlin said.

“S- Speak f-f-for yourself,” Wally shivered, arms pulled tight around himself. “Is it- Is it always like this?”

“I’ll get a blanket.” Iris vanished in a flash of purple lightning and a crash came from the next room. “I’m okay!”

“I’ll help her,” Caitlin said. Her legs didn’t move, and she tripped.

“Language,” Ralph said. “Oh, you didn’t say that. Cecile!”

“Please don’t shout,” Barry said. He clutched his head. “Can I have a painkiller, please?”

“You don’t have a super metabolism anymore,” Cisco said. “You have to wait four hours between them like the rest of us. That’s only three more.”

“But that’s so long.”

“You’re not a speedster, rookie,” Ralph said.

“Oh yeah. Never mind. How long is…”

“About fifteen minutes.”

“Is that why time is so weird?” Cisco asked.

“You get used to it,” Wally said. Iris crashed back into the room and wrapped a blanket around him. A thin layer of frost covered it. “Aww, man. Th-Thanks, Iris.”

“You should try slowing down before you need to stop,” Barry said.

“We can put everyone back though, right?” Ralph asked.

“This has never happened before,” Matthew said. “Maybe?”

“Cisco,” Barry said. His eyes unfocused.

“It’s okay,” Cisco said. “It’s okay, it’s just a vibe. You’re okay, Barry. I’m here.”

“I saw DeVoe.”

“Well, that’s not good,” Ralph said.

“In his lair?” Cisco asked.

“In S.T.A.R. Labs.”

“We’ll stop him. I promise.”

“He’s not here yet,” Cecile said.

“Matthew, can you switch us back?” Iris asked.

“No, don’t.” Wally sneezed. “Don’t, not yet.”

“Wally, we can’t fight DeVoe like this,” Iris said. “I’m nowhere near as fast as you and Barry, and I keep crashing into things, you can’t stop shaking, Cisco hasn’t tried running, Caitlin can barely walk, and if Barry sneezes, he could destroy the planet.”

“I what?”

“Don’t worry about it, babe,” Cisco said. Barry twiddled his wedding ring.

“I really need to sneeze now, how quickly do colds work?”

“Sorry,” Wally said. “But think about it. Ralph has Cecile’s powers. DeVoe’s expecting us to switch back.”

“Because I really miss my Speed and I don’t want to destroy the planet?” Barry asked. “You’re amazing,” he said to Cisco. “How do you deal with all of this in your head?”

“The same way you do, I have someone to ground me.” Cisco smiled and rest his hand on Barry’s shoulder. “What are you thinking, Wally?”

"That DeVoe doesn’t have your powers. He doesn’t know the future, he works off probability, and manipulates events to adjust that. So, we have to be unpredictable.”

“But what if he predicted this?” Iris asked.

“What if he didn’t? His plan targets two speedsters, Barry and me. He wants Ralph. He must need Ralph’s powers.”

“Ralph’s polymerised cells might be able to handle the stress the dark matter is having on his cells,” Caitlin said. “Without them, his body won’t survive.”

“But what if he finds Ralph and finds another telepath instead?”

“It sounds reckless,” Cecile said.

“But it might just work,” Iris said. “We can’t let him find out.”

“That, I can help with.”

Iris was holding Marlize DeVoe in seconds.

“Wait,” Ralph said. “She’s here to help. I’m sorry.”

“Does he know about this?” Cisco asked.

“Not that he’s shared with me,” Marlize said. “Each bus meta has a purpose in the Enlightenment. Do you know what the Weeper’s purpose is?”

“I am so sorry,” Cecile said. “The Enlightenment?”

“Clifford’s aim is to reset the human race. It was supposed to help people.”

“What does he need the bus metas for?” Cisco asked.

“Janet Petty, the next meta, can manipulate gravity. Edwin Gauss can enter pocket dimensions. Ms Petty could launch a satellite from anywhere on the planet. With Mr Gauss’ abilities, Clifford can travel anywhere at will. Mr Rundine’s abilities allow Clifford to move any necessary object he requires, and Mr Deacon’s give him control of technology. He intends to use Mr Borman as a power source.”

“I could take his powers,” Matthew said.

“Only if we get you close,” Cisco said. “We have to find the last two bus metas and bring them here. I think Wally’s right.”

“Then we need to train,” Iris said.

* * *

“Hey,” Cisco said. He sat down next to Barry and wrapped an arm around him. “We can switch back if they’re hurting you.”

“It’s not your powers,” Barry said. “They’re a lot, a lot more than you told me you deal with, but they don’t hurt. I guess I just didn’t realise how much the Speed Force helps with the rest. Is Wally okay?”

“I think Caitlin’s powers help too. And Wally’s not the one who, well.”

“I’ll be fine, Cisco. I just need a warm bath and maybe some more painkillers while they still work. I really am okay.”

“I know where to find a nice bath.”

Barry smiled.

“Where’s everyone else?” he asked.

“Wally’s teaching Iris how to phase, now he’s not leaving ice everywhere he walks. Caitlin and Matthew are trying to work out how his powers work, and Cecile, Joe, Eddie, and Ralph are working with Marlize to find Janet Petty and Edwin Gauss.”

“You’re avoiding phasing?”

“Something like that.” Cisco rubbed his chest. “Do you know why Iris’ lightning is purple? If she has your speed, it should be yellow.”

“She doesn’t have my Speed,” Barry said. “She has my connection to the Speed Force. Although I think that swapped too, she’s got Wally’s, and you’ve got mine. Tapping into the Speed Force is what gives us our Speed, and they know you and Iris aren’t Wally and me. It’s like Zoom’s lightning didn’t change colour after he took my Speed. I haven’t seen you run yet.”

“My lightning is blue. Like him.”

“No,” Barry said. He rested his head on Cisco’s shoulder. “Like your vibes. Your breaches. The Speed Force knows you. You were already connected to them.”

“Because I vibed there?”

“Because you and Iris are my lightning rods. The Speed Force knows they have to share me with you, and they know I want to protect you. To be with you.”

“You can be such a sappy romantic, Barry Allen.”

“You love it.”

“I do love you. But now I’m going to need to find some way to one up you.”

“You could talk about how our powers complement each other, and that’s as close to soulmates as it gets? And that’s probably why we switched?”

“Hmmm. Maybe I’ll just run you a bath.” Cisco scooped Barry up into his arms and Barry wrapped his arms around Cisco’s neck. “Nope, this was a mistake, you’re really heavy. It’s those lightning abs.”

“Want me to try and breach us home instead?”

“Let’s see if it’s easier when I’m running first.”

* * *

Edwin Gauss was going to be hard to find, but Janet Petty wasn’t going to come quietly, so finding Edwin without powers it was.

Well, they could probably try vibes, as long as Barry stayed where DeVoe wouldn’t notice him.

Marlize was also staying at S.T.A.R., which meant Cisco and Iris also were. Sure, she offered her help now, and they probably could trust her, Ralph certainly seemed sure she was telling the truth, but that didn’t mean they trusted her with Barry. She’d helped put him in prison.

Hurting Barry was crossing a line as far as Cisco was concerned.

* * *

“What about Supergirl?” Barry asked. “She could help. She could even finally introduce us to her cousin.”

“We know so many super people,” Cisco said. “Are you starting a club? We should get t-shirts.”

“We should at least be more organised. We all worked together to stop the Dominators, and that was great, but what if Supergirl had been dealing with her own alien invasion, and Green Arrow had been at his favourite haunt away from everyone again? The Legends are a bit more flexible, they have a time machine, but Atom told us about getting stuck in the Jurassic, and they’re really bad at being on time. And that’s coming from me.”

“So, we start a group chat.”

“At least let each other know what we’re dealing with. We all seem to have one main villain a year, right, and they always try and pull off their plan in May, is that…”

“Must be a bad guy thing,” Iris said.

“They especially plan to mess up exam season,” Cisco said.

“That sounds right. You were saying, Barry?”

“Star City normally has some underground corruption/political thing, even if that’s not the whole plan, but what if National gets that next year? And Star gets metahumans, we get magic or whatever the Legends are doing these days, and they get time travelling aliens?”

“We’d need each other’s help,” Iris said. “We couldn’t all just swap cities for the year.”

“But we could fight them. I know Firestorm did eventually drop by to ask about speedsters, but if they’d come to us at the start…”

“We’d have realised it was Thawne again,” Cisco said. “It's great how all it took to erase him from existence was Eddie taking your name when you got married and Barry offering to help when kids come into the picture.”

“That could have gone very badly,” Iris said. “Sorry, Barry, your superhero team up?”

“We don’t always have to work together,” Barry said. “But we can at least keep on top of what the others are dealing with and lend a hand should it seem useful.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Iris said. “How would you organise it?”

“We’d need a base,” Cisco said. “And something to keep on top of communications. Maybe you should get started on Gideon.”

“And a name,” Barry said. “That’s your job.”

“What was it Laurel said? The Black Canary was the justice criminals can’t run from? Something in honour of Laurel.”

“That all seems like a good plan,” Marlize said. “But how does it help us now?”

“We could call Vixen and the Hawks,” Iris said. “They might be able to help.”

“We could try another whatever did this to us,” Cisco said.

“What did happen exactly?” Marlize asked.

“Ralph tripped,” Barry said.

“We think Matthew touched Cisco and Ralph at the same time,” Iris said. “It wasn’t quite an explosion, but when we sat up, everyone had their powers switched.”

“That’s it,” Wally said. He sat up, and Caitlin, Matthew, and Ralph looked over from Caitlin’s lab. “We get DeVoe here and we deliberately set off another explosion.”

“He’ll still end up with a power,” Cisco said. “Even if we have Marlize here and she gets one, he has more than one. And we won’t know which he’ll get.”

“Then you and Barry wait in a different room,” Caitlin said. “With your two powers, you can stop the rest of us.”

“And if we have Joe, Cecile, Harry, Eddie, and Marlize here, that’s more people for the powers to switch up with,” Ralph said.

“That’s still only five,” Barry said. “He’s got Dominic’s, Becky’s, Izzy’s, Mina’s, Deacon’s, Rundine’s, and his own. That’s seven, we need at least six people. We could ask Hartley?”

“Deacon’s powers would short out his gloves,” Iris said. “That’s why we haven’t asked him for help already.”

“And he’s with his sister this weekend,” Cisco said. “Julian’s in London, Linda’s in Coast City-”

“Lily Stein,” Wally said. “She’s around, right, and Matthew’s powers are what they were looking for, so Professor Stein can retire and Jax can stay half of Firestorm. Lily will be able to see if that’s any help.”

“Wally, you’re a genius,” Iris said.

“Thanks.”

“And then what?” Matthew asked. Cisco took Barry’s hand.

“Well, someone interrupted our honeymoon,” Cisco said.

“It was an accident,” Ralph said.

“It’s okay, I know,” Barry said.

“And then Barry got thrown in prison,” Cisco said. “And we never got a chance to finish it. So, we can go and do that.”

“That sounds nice,” Barry said. “Apparently they have an Atlantis on Earth-2, and we would get less interruptions.”

“Sounds perfect.” Cisco kissed him quickly. “After we stop DeVoe.”

“I’ll go and get Lily,” Caitlin said.

**Author's Note:**

> AgentMaryMargaretSkitz's [The Next Firestorm series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/922383) featuring Lily Stein as half of Firestorm with Jax is amazing and definitely inspired that bit.


End file.
